The closure of the Showcase de Lux is the second Bristol cinema to shut up shop in the space of a week.
Bristol’s biggest cinema, the 14-screen Showcase de Lux at Cabot Circus, has scheduled its final screening for the 30th November. The cinema originally opened alongside the Cabot Circus shopping centre in 2008.
Showcase Cinemas UK’s Managing Director, Crispin Lilly, has said: “We would like to thank all the customers who have visited since we opened at Cabot Circus in 2008 and we hope they have enjoyed their time with us.
“We would also like to thank our committed team of employees at the site for their passion, dedication and hard work, especially over the last few difficult years.
“We are committed to delivering great cinema experiences to Bristol audiences and hope that customers will visit our other cinema in the city, less than three miles away at Avonmeads.”
The closure comes just a few days after Cineworld at Hengrove Park – South Bristol’s last remaining cinema – shut its doors on Sunday.
Staff at the Cabot Circus site were placed under notice of potential redundancy in October over concerns Cineworld and the shopping centre would be unable to negotiate a new lease.
A spokesperson for Cabot Circus seemed pretty optimistic about keeping some kind of cinema around in the long-run, though, saying they “remain committed to providing a best in class, renewed cinema alongside other complimentary uses. We look forward to providing more updates soon.”
For now though, there are 14 fewer cinema screens in Bristol. Big sigh.
